How to Record Birdsong—Part 3

Note: This is the third in a three-part series on how to record bird vocalizations. We looked in Part 1 at which hardware to use and how to use it. In Part 2, we learned about software. In this third and final installment, we take a take a broader view—what to listen for when we’re actually out in the field with our recording gear.

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2. Hear the bird. Human ears are great at hearing birds. The problem is when our brains get involved. Our amazing brains have this annoying way of hearing what we wan to hear. We all know about that in human relationships. It also affects how we hear birds.

In a nutshell, our brains are splendid filters. We’re focused on the song of a Virginia’s Warbler, and our brain blocks out all the stuff we’re not interested in: footsteps, an airplane overhead, and other sounds like Canyon Wrens and Cordilleran Flycatchers. Our brains also have this off/on switch when it comes to ID by voice: Within a certain radius of detectability, we hear and recognize the bird; beyond that radius, we do not. (Years ago, I read a scientific paper about this.) So, whether our hypothetical Virginia’s Warbler is nearly 500 feet away or just 50 feet away, we hear it as basically the same sound—even though the spectrogram sure disagrees with that assessment!

Enough of our hypothetical Virginia’s Warbler. Let’s listen now to a real Virginia’s Warbler, one I recorded in the foothills of Boulder County, Colorado, back on June 5 of this year. I was nearly 500 feet away when I first recorded the bird. Here’s the recording:

We have a new problem now. I’m gotten yet closer, but there’s an airplane going over. It’s that low-frequency droning sound. For sure, the Audacity High Pass Filter would be a good idea right about now. But let’s not. Just to make the point, let’s listen to a nice Virginia’s Warbler and an annoying airplane:

I assume you’ll agree that those five recordings differ appreciably in quality. But here’s the funny thing: In the field, I didn’t really pick up on the differences. The bird sounded as much like a Virginia’s Warbler at 500 feet as at 50 feet; my brain shut out my footsteps and the airplane; and the flycatcher and wren seemed strangely faint and distant, despite what the recording tells us.

I’ve gotten to the point now where I make a mental checklist of all the things that diminish the quality of a recording: wind and water; plains, trains, and automobiles; footsteps; western chorus frogs; House Wrens; and Canada Geese. It’s the same way with photographers and their eternal struggle with backlighting, light angle, shadow, branches, buildings, etc. When we’re in the field, our brains conveniently adjust for those things; when we review the images onscreen, those features become inconveniently prominent.

Something else: distance. A bird at 10 feet is going to look better photographed with a smartphone than through a high-end telephoto lens at 1,000 feet. Analogously, that Virginia’s Warbler sounds better at 500 feet than at 50. So get close to the bird. Be stealthy. Move slowly. Try not to disturb the bird. As always, abide by the ABA Code of Birding Ethics when pointing a camera or a recorder at a bird.

7. Enjoy the show. Let’s wrap up now by having some fun. Here’s a sampler of recordings, all made with the Olympus LS-10. All are from Colorado, May–June 2014.

7.1–Rarities. Back on May 17, Dan Durda and I saw a “Traill’s Flycatcher” at Greenlee Preserve, Boulder County. It had the visual characters of an Alder Flycatcher (thin eye-ring, greenish overall), so we had a hunch it was this species—rare anywhere in Colorado. I heard a single peep note, fairly distinct from the Willow Flycatcher’s low, whit. But the bird wasn’t giving us much on the auditory front. Dan had a birdsong app with him, and played a brief snippet of Alder Flycatcher. Check out the result:

Not nearly as rare in Colorado as the Alder Flycatcher, but still a nice bird, is the Red-eyed Vireo. Especially when you hear one in plausible breeding habitat in late June. There are amazingly few confirmed breeding records of the species in the state. With young birder Topiltzin Martínez and my kids Hannah and Andrew, I recorded this Red-eyed Vireo, singing his heart out, in a dense broadleaf grove along South Boulder Creek, Boulder County, June 21:

7.2–Tricksters, Mysteries, and Challenges. The Red-eyed Vireo we just heard was totally unambiguous. But Topiltzin and Hannah and Andrew and I heard some less-straightforward birds that long day of summer solstice birding. For example, this “Rufous-sided Towhee”:

Hmm… Sure sounds like the Eastern Towhee’s Drink Your Te-e-e-ea! But I’m not convinced. We got only the briefest of glimpses of the bird—only enough to confirm that it was a “Rufous-sided Towhee” of some sort. The Eastern Towhee is exceedingly rare in Colorado. And, although the song resembles the Eastern Towhee’s, it’s not classic for that species, either. Maybe this is a Spotted Towhee or a hybrid from the contact zone between the two towhees? Maybe it learned the song of an Eastern Towhee, but not quite perfectly?

Toward the end of the day, as we were approaching Rabbit Mountain, Hannah had an insight: “This looks like a good place for a roadrunner.” There are no records for the county, but she’s right: The south slope of Rabbit Mountain—with its rocks, spiny plants, and rattlesnakes—seems ideal for a species that may well show up here some day. No roadrunners for us today, but check out this bird:

Curve-billed Thrasher? That would be a “mega”—a very rare bird—in Boulder County. Perfect habitat. Curve-billed Thrashers and Greater Roadrunners co-occur in the cholla-and-yucca–studded landscapes of southeastern Colorado. But I’m nearly certain our bird wasn’t a Curve-billed Thrasher. This bird was, in all likelihood, a Yellow-breasted Chat. I didn’t actually see the chat open its mouth and make these sounds, but the call came from the immediate vicinity of the chat, and chats are skilled, if under-appreciated, mimics.

7.3–Science. I’m working now on two contributions to Colorado Field Ornithologists (CFO). One is a paper to appear in CFO’s quarterly journal Colorado Birds; the other is a scientific presentation at CFO’s annual meeting a bit later this summer.

For the paper in Colorado Birds, I’m looking at the stronger-than-usual mid-May 2014 flight along the Platte River I-25 corridor (Casper, Wyoming to Denver, Colorado) of Gray Flycatchers, Northern Waterthrushes, and Clay-colored Sparrows. I’m getting the basic data from eBird, but I also need some audio-visual support. Unfortunately, those three species aren’t all that photogenic to begin with, plus they occurred during a weather system that was horrific for photography. So how about some audio? Here are some recordings from Boulder County, all during a strong “upslope” system the week of May 11—a Northern Waterthrush (with warm-up from a Yellow Warbler), followed by an actually singing Gray Flycatcher (first time I’d ever heard one singing on migration in eastern Colorado), followed by a whole chorus of singing Clay-colored Sparrows:

For the presentation at the CFO meeting, I’ll be reporting on four years’ worth of audio-recording of Warbling Vireos east of the continental divide in Colorado and Wyoming. “Western” Warbling Vireos occur chiefly in the mountains and foothills, as you might expect, whereas “Eastern” Warbling Vireos occupy broadleaf groves along creeks and rivers on the Eastern Plains. But what about areas of overlap? Barr Lake State Park, near Denver International Airport, seems to be one such place. Check out these two recordings I made there on July 2, first an apparent “Eastern” Warbling Vireo, then, less than a half-mile away, an apparent Western Warbling-Vireo:

7.4–Beautiful birds. Let’s not lose sight of a point I tried to get across at the very outset. With a decent pocket recorder, good ambient conditions (no wind, no cars, no Canada Geese), and a bit of Audacity-based editing, you can get some great recordings. Here are two samples. First, this Green-tailed Towhee in Rocky Mountain National Park, Larimer County, on June 7:

Towhees and other sparrows sing complex songs. Flycatchers’ songs average simpler, but no less beautiful. Here’s the simple and evocative song of an Olive-sided Flycatcher, singing at dawn at the Walker Ranch, Boulder County, June 21:

7.5–Beyond birdsong. One of the most poignant lives ever lived was Ludwig van Beethoven’s. In his late years, the composer was nearly completely deaf. He couldn’t hear the music the way we do. Paradoxically, Beethoven’s art is generally believed to have been assisted by deafness: Beethoven was unshackled from the constraints of normal human hearing, set free to explore the world of pure sound. The result was some of the most enduring and imaginative art of all time: the Diabelli Variations and Missa Solmenis; the achingly beautiful late piano sonatas; the immortal Symphony No. 9; the berserk yet bewitching Great Fugue; and the late string quartets—in some people’s view, the summit of all music-making,

I don’t aspire to achieving the ability to hear Beethoven’s music only in my head. To be honest with you, I don’t spend a lot of time these days with the scores. I’m content to a “mere” auditory experience. (Although that YouTube video of the score, above, is very cool, and I hope you’ll give it a click.) But I don’t feel that way, these days, about birdsong.

One of my all-time favorite natural sounds is the melancholy song of the Cassin’s Sparrow. During that field excursion in late May 2014 to Las Animas County, Colorado, my companions and I heard a few of these brown desert birds. Our objective wasn’t really Cassin’s Sparrows, as we were concentrating more on the birds of the canyon country. But we needed—really, it was an emotional and psychological need—to hear Cassin’s Sparrows. So, on the last day, we got into higher and drier terrain, and heard a few. Let’s listen to one of them:

Ted Floyd

Ted Floyd is the Editor of Birding magazine, and he is broadly involved in other programs and initiatives of the ABA. He is the author of more than 100 magazine and journal articles, and has written four recent books, including an ABA title, the ABA Guide to Birds of Colorado. Floyd is a frequent speaker at birding festivals and state ornithological society meetings, and he has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. Mainly, he listens to birds at night.

Excellent treatment and tutorial. I literally just got into recording birdsong this year. Having a background in audio engineering, I ended up doing the exact same stuff you describe and I have been thrilled with the results. I am glad to see content like this here so more can learn. Thanks for the articles!

Ted Floyd

Right on. Thanks, Joshua, for the kind words. Say, ABA blogmeister Nate Swick has helpfully put all three posts in one place. No need now to click back and forth. Here ya go:

I think this series is pitched at just the right level. Audio recording has been an important part of my enjoyment of birding over the past five years or so and I’m pleased that my low budget procedure (cheap handheld–in my case an Edirol R09–and Audacity) parallels yours. I will add that birdsong recording quickly tunes you into the overall acoustic ecology of an area. You end up recognizing the signatures of certain patches (e.g., the dominant Baltimore Oriole song) and dismayed at the number of great birding spots located right next to highways and airports. Oh and chipmunks, don’t get me started on chipmunks….

Ted Floyd

Ah, yes. Chipmunks. I was reminded of the perfidiousness of chipmunks during a recent visit Back East (northern New Jersey). On several morning bird walks, I thought about recording some cool birds–Scarlet Tanagers, Pileated Woodpeckers, and such–but every time I started recording, I realized it was all chipmunks, all the time.

At least, the chipmunks stop calling at night, don’t they? But the western chorus frogs and Canada Geese are 24/7.

Cyanocitta

I think we started this conversation a while back and failed to continue it, Ted… so, anyway, the reason I don’t like the colored spectrographs is precisely because of what you mention here! 50 isn’t the same as 500 feet? With a grey-scale spectrograph, the songs still look quite similar – the major difference will just be how dark the high-volume notes are. With a colored spec, they will look vastly different. It s jarring for me to try and compare two songs to see if they are the same type or not when they are represented so differently.

Ted Floyd

Good point, Cyanocitta. And, yet, for any particular individual, it’s helpful–for my ears and brains, anyhow–to be able to “see” the differences in “loudness” or “volume.” In the Lark Sparrow spectrograms (in Part 2), you “see” those differences by way of the different colors in the spectrogram.

I can anticipate a possible response: Just look at the waveform functions–in conjunction, of course, with the sound spectrograms. Fair enough. Over the years, though, I guess I’ve disciplined myself to be able to “see” the same information in the color-coded sound spectrograms in Audacity.

Which isn’t to say the waveform functions aren’t useful. They are. They’re excellent guides for understanding, setting, and editing the record levels. I always check in on the waveform functions, to make sure my recordings aren’t too noisy (record level too high and/or too close to streams and roads and western chorus frogs) or too low (basically, record level set to low).

Tony Leukering

Like Ted, I love Cassin’s Sparrow song. Ever since hearing my first one, oh so many years ago, I have wondered if Fred Steiner knew that bird, because it seems to me that Fred’s “Park Avenue Beat” takes a page from the species’ song. For old-timers like me, you might not recognize the tune’s name, but know it, immediately, as the theme to Perry Mason.

Ted Floyd

A sort of dark and foreboding Cassin’s Sparrow, but, yes, I hear the similarity. And I see it, too:

Ted Floyd

I see that Peter Marler, a pioneer in understanding and recording birdsong, has died. The New York Times has a thorough obit:

After using Audacity for a while my favorite filters are High Pass Filter to reduce the lower (often noisy) parts of an recording, and Noise reduction with some care (5-7 db) to reduce wind, noisy rivers etc. I’ve also added a parabolic mic to my Zoom H6 (Telinga stereo) to get really close to the birdies.
Great article!! Listen to Willow ptarmigans displaying Tromsø, Norwayhttp://www.xeno-canto.org/98786

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